 |
Great White Egret
Non-breeding bill and leg colour.
|
 |
| Great White Egret |
 |
Great White Egret
No elongated plumes.
|
 |
Great White Egret
Bird arriving on reserve high from the East.
Went down West side of Main Reedbed.
|
 |
Gargeney
Male about the East end of the reserve for several days now.
|
 |
Little Grebe
In Dyke by East Bank.
|
 |
Red-flanked Bluetail
Adult female...?
Re-located early on 27th near ground in mossy willow carr.
|
 |
Red-flanked Bluetail
Fly catching around Dragonfly pond once the day had warmed up by afternoon.
Paul Eele's comments: I was just on my way back to the visitor centre when a radio message alerted me to say that a red-flanked bluetail had been reported from the Meadow Trail! I was rather surprised by the news and if I am honest, I expected to find a robin. When I got to the Meadow Trail there was a small bird flycatching from the willows. I raised my bins to find there was indeed a RED-FLANKED BLUETAIL!! The bird was showing really well and I managed to get some signal on my phone to enable me to broadcast the news. Before long people started to arrive and watch the bird performing well. It is a migrant species breeding in mixed coniferous forest in northern Asia and northeastern Europe, from Finland east across Siberia to Kamchatka and south to Japan. It winters mainly in southeastern Asia and the Indian Subcontinent. The breeding range is slowly expanding westwards through Finland (where up to 500 pairs now breed), and is a rare but increasing vagrant to western Europe. However, the local robins were not as pleased to see our special guest and started to chase it about causing the bluetail to become more mobile and elusive but still favouring the Meadow Trail. Having only seen them in autumn hopping around on the ground, I was rather surprised to see it flycatching from the tops of the willow bushes. 2016 was an excellent year in the UK for bluetails and Norfolk didn't miss out with two records of its own in the autumn. This represents the first record for the reserve after the single observer record in September 2008 was unproven. |
 |
Wren
Passing the time of day waiting for a Bluetail to show.
|
 |
Gull-billes Tern
Rare bird at Titchwell in the early days.
Every new bird sketched in those days and added to the Life list...
|
 |
Head and skull sketches.
Holme Dunes course in 2015.
|
